Yigal Allon (Paicovitch) born in 1918 in Kfar Tavor, Palestine. He became the
commander of the Haganah's Palmach (strike force) between 1945-1948. During the
1948 war, he commanded several military operations (i.e. Operation Yiftah, Dani,
and Yoav), and he became famous for being one of the engines behind cleansing the MOST populated Palestinian areas (i.e. Lydda,
Ramla, Safad, Hebron
hills, Faluja pocket). Allon later became Minister
of Labour in 1961-1968, and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister between
1974-1977.

Famous Quotes

Yigal Allon described the affect of psychological warfare on the Palestinian
Arabs in the Galilee panhandle during the 1948 war:

"The echo of the fall of [Palestinian] Arab Safad carried far . .
. The confidence of thousands of [Palestinian] Arabs of the Hula [Valley] was
shaken . . . We had ONLY five days left . . . until 15 May [1948]. We regarded it as imperative
to CLEANSE [of Palestinian Arabs] the interior of the Galilee and create
JEWISH territorial continuity in the whole of the Upper Galilee. The
protracted battles reduced our forces, and we faced major tasks in blocking
[prospective Syrian and Lebanese] invasion routes. We, therefore, looked for a
means that would not oblige us to use force to DRIVE OUT tens of thousands of
hostile [Palestinian] Arabs left in the Galilee and who, in the event of an
invasion, could strike at us from behind. We tried to utilize a stratagem that
exploited the [Arabs] defeat in Safad and in area cleared by [Operation] Broom
- a stratagem that WORKED WONDERFULLY.
I gathered the Jewish mukhtars [Kibbutz chiefs],
who had ties with the different [local Palestinian] Arab villages, and I asked
them to WHISPER in the ears of several [Palestinian] Arabs that a giant Jewish
reinforcement had reached the Galilee and were about to CLEAN OUT the villages
of Hula, [and] to advise them as friends, to FLEE while they could. And rumour
spread throughout Hula that the time had come to flee. The flight encompassed
tens of thousands. The stratagem FULLY achieved its objective . . . and we
were able to deploy ourselves in face of the [prospective] invaders along the
borders, with out fear for our rear." (Benny
Morris, p. 122)

Similarly, Allon also stated:

"We looked for means which would not obligate us to use force in order
to get tens of thousands of sulky [Palestinian] Arabs who remained in Galilee
to flee, for in case of an Arab invasion, they would attack us from
rear." (Simha Flapan, p. 96)

A Palmach (the Israeli strike force) report, written by Yigal Allon soon
after Operation Dani in the first half of July 1948, stated that the expulsion
of the Lydda and Ramle
Palestinian inhabitants, beside relieving Tel Aviv of a potential, long-term
threat, had:

"clogged the routes of the advance of the [Transjordan Arab] Legion and
had foisted upon the Arab economy the problem of "maintaining another
45,000 souls . . . Moreover, the phenomenon of the flight of tens of thousands
will no doubt cause demoralsation in every Arab area [the refugees] reach
. . . This victory will yet have great effect on other sectors." (Benny
Morris, p. 211 & Israel:
A History, p. 218)

And in response to the above report, a Mapam party co-leader, Meir Ya'ari, criticized
Allon's use of tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees to achieve a military strategic
goals, he stated:

"Many of us are LOSING their [human] image . . How easily they
speak of how it is possible and permissible to take women, children, and old
men and to fill the road with them because such is the imperative of strategy.
And this we say, the members of Hashomer Hatzair, who remember who used this
means against our people during the Second World] war. . . . I am
appalled." (Benny
Morris, p. 211)

During the course of the 1948 war, Yigal Allon submitted a
detailed plan to Ben-Gurion for the military conquest of the West Bank, arguing
that the Jordan River would provide the best strategic border. He believed that
a substantial part of the Palestinian population would flee east because of the
military operations, he stated:

"Our offensive has to leave the way open for the army and
the refugees to retreat. We shall easily find the reason or, to be more
accurate, the pretexts, to justify our offensive, as we did up to now"
(emphasis added). (Simha Flapan, p. 114)

Yigal Allon wrote in an article published just before the outbreak of the 1967 war:

"In. . .a new war, we must avoid the HISTORIC MISTAKE of the War of
Independence [the 1948 war]. . . and MUST NOT cease fighting until we achieve
total victory, the territorial fulfillment of the Land Of Israel." (Righteous Victims,
p. 321)